Muhammad Iqbal, Asrar-e Khudi [Secrets of the Self]

Javed Majeed (King's College London)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 10.3.2: Pakistani and Bangladeshi Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Claire Gallien (Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3), Sarker Hasan Al Zayed (Independent University Bangladesh), Pavan Kumar Malreddy (J W Goethe University of Frankfurt), Delphine Munos (Université de Liège), Muneeza Shamsie (Independent Scholar - Asia), Niaz Zaman (Independent University Bangladesh)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1915

Places

India (Publication/ performance)
Pakistan (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)

Resources

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This Persian philosophical poem consists of 871 rhyming couplets in the “masnavi” form [a narrative poem composed of distichs corresponding in measure, each consisting of rhyming couplets]. The subject matter of the poem is individual selfhood or “khudi” within a re-imagined Islamic framework. As Nicholson put it soon after the poem appeared, Iqbal’s ideas were not “typical of any section of his co-religionists” and involved “a radical change in the Muslim mind” (Nicholson 1920, p. xxxi). The poem is divided into nineteen sections, including a prologue. The majority of the sections address the nature and value of individual selfhood, the necessity of self-assertion, the creative relationship of an assertive selfhood to external reality, and the importance of purposive…

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556 words

Citation: Majeed, Javed. "Asrar-e Khudi". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 July 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=30670, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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